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$3000 Tax Payer Dollars

If you listen close you can hear Senator Dee Brown’s nails on a chalkboard voice cackling about the spending of tax payer dollars. Well, except in this case since her fellow teacher, Elsie, is spending those dollars. So just what does $3000 buy Arntzen anyway?

Last week the Lee papers ran a story about the cost of the ‘investigation’ with their usual repetition of details. But it does raise a few questions. Why does Arntzen need to hire a human resources consultant to review policies and procedures if OPI already has a human resources manager on staff? And, if the OPI has access to additional human resource support through the Department of Administration why is she paying an outside firm to do the same work she could get for free from DOA? Questions that wouldn’t need to be asked in any other scenario since it would be logical to use the knowledge of in-house resources.

Jim Kerins’ and CMS have made a living off state government dating back some twenty years now and certainly far more than a measly $3000 dollars. Having said that, it’s rather strange that CMS would take on this project. It’s short term, cheap and in one sense, risky. Kerins’ has managed to thread the political needle for quite some time by taking on projects with the state that don’t result in any kind of political agenda. Until now. This time his work will either support the allegations of an OPI leader who clearly has a political agenda or find a few misfiled documents. A failed witch hunt.

Arntzen ran for office on what she portrayed as the sins of past Democratic leadership. Unfortunately, when she finally walked into the buildings that house OPI for the first time she found no smoking guns or dead rats. Instead she discovered an underfunded facility and underpaid staff. Bear in mind, she has some responsibility in that given her voting record and lack of support for both public education and government agencies, to include OPI.

So Kerins’ has taken on a $3000 project that’s set to end next week on the 28th. We’re all on the edge of our seats wondering what his investigation/review will reveal. And at this point, Kerins’ is going to have to find something to feed Elsie. She’s made a spectacle herself and continued missteps are something $3000 won’t cover up. One thing Kerins’ should remember when he hands Arntzen that smoking gun, his fingerprints will be on it too.